www.neil.blog memo to myself. do the dumb things i gotta do. touch the puppet head.

Apparently my beloved minivan would cost about $1200 to fix. Considering I only paid $900 for it.. I’m just gonna junk it, or give it away or something.

So my grandmother is sick, cancer, but I think they got rid of that, but she won’t take her pills right so she can’t really drive. Anyhow she gave me her car. It’s a ’94 Ford Escort, two door. 73,000 miles or so. It’s such an old-lady car, complete with the rosary hanging from the rearview, and the cross sticker on the window. And Beanie Baby on the dash. She only drove about 3 miles at a time: to church and back. I’m afraid of driving it really because it’s so used to that, I guess. I don’t know anything about cars.

Also, Glenn and his stupid friends were being idiots last night and having a shaving cream fight of some sort. He’s such a liar that I’m not really sure what happened. He uses semantics and doublespeak to get around EVERYTHING you could pin on him. “I didn’t spray any..” No, he squirted it onto a ball or something, and threw it. Anyhow, in the midst of the shaving cream battle, someone ran into my computer and now the hard drive is messed up and I can’t use the computer. I’m really pissed about having to retype the first four pages of my term paper.

Instead of typing all this, I could have just written “i got a new car, and my computer broke” but this is so much more fun.

This is why public school is so ridiculous. I’m in my internship thing in the computer room, and everyone in here is watching Shrek 2 on the projector screen. And I’m reading this book trying to tune it out. Everyone in my english class was saying how they hated it, so I figured I’d finally get around to reading it. Who has read it, and what do you think (without giving anything away about it please!)

My van is “in the shop” right now. I would be driving it and all the lights would start to fade.. and then after a while there would be no lights at all, the radio wouldn’t work, and my directionals wouldn’t light up. Kind of scary.. I pulled into Kirsten’s driveway and it wouldn’t start again. I had to call my dad and have him help me jump-start it. He said it could be the battery.. but he doesn’t really know anything about cars.

I am going to see what the Dodge dealership wants to do.. I am thinking about seeing if they’ll give me any trade-in value for it and just buying a new(er) vehicle. It sucks that this one is dying so fast, but it’s a ’93 and they don’t really build these things to last I guess. I’d rather have a $150-a-month car payment than a shitty $900 car that I have to get repaired every month. Even if I have to give up going out a few times a month, I think it’d be worth it. I have enough to do without worrying about cars. My mom broke her arm and can’t drive, so I can use hers for the time being. But I already feel 100% less independent, having to ask to use her car.

In other news, I was listening to Dillinger and my brother’s friend said “what is this? like hardcore emo?”

estimated cost: $20, plus labor.

It turned into this.

Plus $160 for a new muffler. That’s why my van was so loud. There was a giant hole in it.

Oh yeah, I need a new head gasket, whatever that is, which costs $500.

I can’t drive farther than about 50 miles, or my car will shit itself, says the mechanic. What the hell, I haven’t even done a thousand miles yet. He said it’s because of the way I drive it.

Yes Renee, I think you are the biggest snob of all time.

Also, Renè, I am wearing your scarf! haha

Just kidding, I hate quizzes.

The other day I was in the lunch line, and this girl dropped her tray and mashed potatoes went all over my foot. And I was like grrl what u be droppin taters all up on my fresh kicks for. Don’t you know they’re on the Atkins.

It was weird though, she didn’t even apologize, not that it’s a big deal, but if I dropped potatoes on someone’s shoe I would at least acknowledge that I maybe was a little sorry. Or sad that I wouldn’t get to eat any potatoes, which are my favorite food so maybe it’s different for me.

EDIT: 2 minutes later: I just got this!

Whatever, it’s $25, I don’t really care. Now I have to go put it back, before I get another one.

I went to the dentist yesterday for my regular six-month checkup. I ended up needing three fillings, so I just stayed and let them do it the same day. My mouth was wide open for over an hour, and now it is very sore, and the corners feel like they’re torn. Also, novicain shots hurt worse than giving blood.

I was trying to smile but I suck at it.

Also, who wants to go for a drive to East Bumfuck tonight? I have a few seats left! 🙂

It seems a little different seeing them on paper. Im gonna sign up to take them again, but i am only going to do the math sections this time. Average scores for students at Emerson is around 1300. Too bad my GPA is shit. I wish college wasn’t such a big deal. It’s not really the rest of my life or anything, just my immediate future. I guess.

One thing I am thankful for is that I don’t have to deal with my entire family like that every day. They are all crazy. I just sat there and laughed at them.

I didn’t go to school yesterday. I guess when my mom came in to wake me up, I said something about how “i’m still thinking about whether I want to go or not.” I was feeling pretty sick anyhow, and I slept till 11. After that I was feeling alright though. Hung out with Rachel, Casey, and Kirsten. Bought a Smiths covers CD. Went to Moes for burritos. Then went to Uno’s with a bunch of kids to celebrate Rene’s return, yay! It was good seeing her again.

Also today I was happy. I don’t have any looming deadlines, all my homework is done, I have 3 days off, I don’t have any girl problems, and I am healthy, as is everyone else. No drama that I know of. There are mad sales on computer stuff tomorrow, so I’m going to get up at 6 and go buy a new hard drive 🙂

Glenn has one of his weird friends over, and the kid just said this: you guys have a unicycle? I mean xylophone? What is that thing? Accordian?

Yep, life is good.

I know how everyone said if Bush got elected again, they would move to Canada. And nobody did. But I was thinking about it, about how there is probably going to be a Constitutional (hic) Amendment banning gay marriage. And if there is, I am going to be very sad for this country. And I’m not even gay. So I don’t know how they will deal with it.

I hate how everything is about religion. And “Christian Values.” And fuck you guys, it has nothing to do with that.

What do you MEAN, “sanctity of marriage”? Every era throughout history has had its own guidelines on what society considered “okay” in marriage. In ancient times, we had arranged marriages. Then marriage between different social classes became okay. Then women actually started getting some power in their relationships. Then even *gasp* INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE is okay. What is it going to take for people to stop seeing these sorts of boundaries in relationships? The way we believe in marriage now (man/woman) is the only social barrier left in the way of people accepting gay marriage. Your grandmother probably thinks it’s bad for blacks and whites to get married. Why should you hold the same kind of prejudice?

Rod and I have been talking about going to the Bijou forever, but we never did. Yesterday was the last day it was open, since they’re tearing down the mall that surrounds it. We went, and paid $5 to see a movie called What the Bleep Do We Know!?, which was basically about quantum physics, but it really makes you think. So it sucks that we’ll never be able to go again. I can’t believe nobody ever got me to go before that.